Typically, an operational amplifier employs a variety of compensation networks to control various parameters such as gain margin, phase margin, and so forth, to maintain stability. Compensation networks may be based on various compensation schemes, such as feedback compensation scheme, feed-forward compensation scheme, etc. A compensation network may also be employed in a conditionally stable operational amplifier.
A conditionally stable operational amplifier may be used in a variety of electronic or communication systems, for example in a gain stage; however, conditionally stable operational amplifiers may be stable only in specific gain configurations. The execution of different gain configurations may require a corresponding change in the configuration of the compensation circuit of the conditionally stable operational amplifier. Therefore, a standard conditionally stable operational amplifier may not operate in multiple modes of operation, and its performance may not be uniform over different gain configurations.
Furthermore, the conditionally stable operational amplifier working in a given closed loop configuration may be stable only for a particular condition, such as gain, unity-gain-frequency, etc. This may be a limitation when the conditionally stable operational amplifier is used in a multi mode system. For example, if the conditionally stable operational amplifier is stable at a specified gain, then at a higher gain configuration, stability may not be guaranteed. Therefore, the programmability of the compensation circuit of the conditionally stable operational amplifier may become of a great importance.